Faraway Dreaming
by CarsasaAllakay
Summary: Centrally Haleb. Hanna became pregnant at the age of 18 - something she thought would never happen. Now, five years later, with her little girl asking incessantly about her father, Hanna wants to let him in. Can she though, or is her happily ever after intangible? Will she forever be stuck faraway dreaming?
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: I hadn't updated Northern Stars in so long and unfortunately lost inspiration for it. This fic - Faraway Dreaming \- is a replacement fic. It's centrally Haleb, though he other girls/ couples will be featured from time to time. It takes place years after the tumultuousness of 'A' and 'A' is there no longer. I hope you enjoy! :) Read and Review. More reviews is a faster update! **_

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The darkness in which she stood was lit by the penumbral light of the descending sun; it was falling down, toppling over the cumulus clouds, and taking with it a few cottony wisps while giving way to the crystalline luminescence of the moon.

She watched from a proximal distance, a small child, her beautiful baby girl, frolic upon the warm, textural sand as its granules trapped themselves within the petite chasms of her toes, painted a light pink.

"Alexa." At the sound of her name, the little girl turned around, her shoulder-length brown hair - a chestnut colour - gently caressing her face with a slapping force. "Yeah mommy?"

Her dark eyes were no longer so bright, their limpidness far gone as a tiered fog set in. It was time to get her to bed.

"Time to go sweetheart. I promise we'll come back another time."

Hanna watched her reaction with a careful eye, wondering if tonight was going to be like the many others before it, ending with a petulant tantrum; those consisted of protestant squeals and cries, leaving her heart-shaped lips in a string of heretical incoherence, their audibility muffled by the antecedence of heavy sobs.

It was a surprise however, when Alexa just nodded, walking quickly into her mother's awaiting arms. "I'm pooped," she stated, the strength and energy her tiny body had possessed all at once depleting as she fell against Hanna's chest.

Hanna sighed softly, biting her lip as she affectionately stroked the top of the child's head. "Me too baby girl, me too."

Her gaze fell onto the ocean, the waves tepid and rippling. The lighthouse was quite far out, though even so one could almost always see the sparkling light above the water; it danced along its wrinkles, the aureate circle splayed out atop its salty blue.

It was impossible, and Hanna knew as much, but it comforted her in ways not many could understand; the belief that her mother was still here, watching over her, and her daughter, in the reified form of this angelic light.

Alexa saw it too now, and she pointed, with the thumb that had been in her mouth, at the golden orb.

"It's grandma, right mommy? You told me that whenever I see the lighthouse light, that it is grandma."

Hanna nodded mutely, gingerly taking Alexa's thumb from where it was once again placed.

"Honey, hasn't mommy told you already? No more thumb-sucking. Okay?"

"Mhm," she responded, leaning against her mother's side as though to push all of her weight up against Hanna's hip. "I'm tiered. Can we go?"

"We sure can," Hanna smiled, blowing a kiss out towards the water and watched as her daughter did the same, albeit with a more languid motion as her eyes began to droop sleepily.

"Night Night grandma," Alexa whispered, little voice becoming befogged as she yawned.

"Goodnight mom, I miss you," Hanna murmured, taking her daughter's hand in hers as they walked now towards their parked car.

Ashley Marin died prematurely, suffering from a spontaneous heart attack a few years after Hanna's eighteenth birthday, a few months before Alexa had turned five. She had been complaining of constant chest pains, brushing them off as nothing more than indigestion for a few weeks before it happened. It was in the Dilaurentis' office, and Jason was present in time to see her laying there, on the floor, already dead. They say she passed away instantly. Her heart just...stopped.

As her only daughter, Hanna inherited the property, and, because she lived in the house where she'd grown up, thought of her mother constantly; memories circled the fan in the living room - as it rotated in an oscillating movement - cooling the room and alerting her of a ghostly presence.

Once Hanna and her daughter had gotten home, it was after seven thirty - Alexa's bedtime - and the little girl was feeling the effects; her head was laying on her mother's shoulder, eyes closed, and the trip upstairs was lulling her into a what was to be a heavy sleep.

"Goodnight Lex," Hanna whispered, kissing the forehead of her little girl. "I love you."

After tucking Alexa into bed, Hanna walked back downstairs, curling up on the armchair with a fuzzy blanket pooled at her feet, feeling too warm already without the extra heat of the fleecy throw.

Hanna felt particularly nostalgic on this night. She yearned, without reason, for the tangibility of such happy memories, and as she began turning the pages of one photo album, fingers playing mindlessly with the yellowing edges of each, she became wistful too, for those that weren't so happy.

_"Caleb," her voice was quiet, tentative, unsure. _

_There she stood, in a cable-knit sweater, its creme color seeming very wintery against the chilled redness of her cheeks. "I don't think I can - I don't think we should..."_

_"Don't you say that Han." _

_She shook her head, curls bouncing the smallest bit in her adamancy. He looked at her as though she'd killed his very reason for living - with large, darkened eyes, adjectival to a wounded puppy. "I won't let you." _

_Hanna turned quickly around, to avoid seeing his face any longer. She walked with faded breaths, each one a foggy observable in the pitch of the sky. "You just did." _

Allowing her hand to make a small print on his photographed face, she sighed upon wiping away the tear that had fallen on its surface. In this picture, Caleb was smiling, unlike the one before, where she and him stood outside the Rosewood church - he with a stoic expression and her seeming pained, the emotion making a visible crease along her cheek. That was the day of Mona's funeral - a day she remembered all to well.

This next photo however, the smiling one, depicted a happier time.

_She screeched and squealed due to his fingers running along her stomach as he laughed, finding her sudden embodiment of a little girl to be humorous._

_ "Babe, shush. We're in a public place. What are you, five?" _

_Hanna giggled, "close. I'm turning six in three months Daddy. You're wrong."_

_Caleb smirked, holding her tighter to him, becoming almost proprietary as he placed a smoldering kiss to her supple lips._

_"I'm sorry Princess, that's what I meant," he apologized, spinning around before sitting on the nearby bench with her on his lap. _

_Hanna stood up abruptly, taking him by surprise. "Can we get some ice cream?" _

_"Of course," Caleb obliged as he too rose to his feet, taking her hand. _

_The couple took relaxing strides across the scorching pavement, their flip-flops and beating hearts attuned to one another. _

_They'd spent the majority of the hot summer day at the county fair, eating hotdogs and riding every roller coaster, indulging in an unspoken togetherness as they screamed in terror - finding great enjoyment in adolescent behavior. _

_Now, licking their ice cream cones in an amicable silence, Caleb grabbed for her hand once again, intertwining their fingers. "Today was fun," he began as a means of conversation. _

_Though Hanna didn't feel like talking. She just leaned against his sturdy body, biting into the crunchiness of her cone with an affirming nod. _

With a swipe of her hand, Hanna moved on to the next picture, watching as the Farriswheel, with its colorful exterior, disappeared from view as a baby grand piano took its place.

She smiled softly, the movement upturning her lips into a ruminative slope. It was this picture.

Hanna stood affronting the piano, her black and white color scheme matching its keys. She had a radiant grin on her face, its grandiosity heightening her cheekbones some, and with her hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail, her petite forehead was exposed. Caleb was beside her, arm wrapped loosely around her waist as though to be cautious of her porcelain delicacy, tiny features reminding him much of a doll.

_On many occasions, he's whispered in her ear these exact words, but never before with such lustful sibilance. "Wanna take a little nap babydoll?"_

_She shivered, his boozy breath pinpricking the smooth skin of her neck. "I'll lay you down." _  
_  
Hanna looked to her friends lounging with such sociability around the bar. Spencer was leaning against Toby's chest, nursing the same daiquiri she'd had since the night began. Virgin one no doubt. Rolling her eyes, she looked to Aria who was gaily nattering about this book she and Ezra had read, cheeks flushed with inebriation. Ezra's arm was gripping his girlfriend's waist and this saved her, multiple times, from tripping on nothing but her own feet. Emily was sitting on a barstool, twisting around and around as she downed another fireball, her eyes misty with a drunken haze. She threw her head back in obstreperous laughter, a cackle that made even the evilest of witches cringe. _

_Focussing her gaze on her boyfriend, Hanna grinned wanly, ready to open herself to him in a way she hadn't yet. _

_Suddenly, Hanna shot forward, shoved by a man with beady eyes and greying hair. Sans apologizing, he took a seat at the piano, beginning to play without word. _

_Caleb reciprocated her smile, gripping her hips as though to steady her swaying frame. The song Lay Me Down emanated in a lower pitch from the instrument, the litheness of the man's spindly fingers coming as a surprise. _

_"I love this song," Hanna murmured, her head resting on Caleb's chest. "And I love you, so yes." _

_"You want to?"_

_"I want to." _

_Hanna grabbed his hand, turning around to glance one last time at her friends, all intoxicated and happy. It came as a fleeting thought, disappearing as fast as it appeared, that, just maybe, she was in that same state: unable to fully process her actions and its repercussions. _

_When the sunrise dabbled with a painter's hand along her face, submerging her surroundings in a yellowish tinge, the room was one she didn't recognize; however, the boy pressed against her - skin-to-skin - was clear as day._

"Mommy?" Alexa's voice reached her slowly, like it was traveling through molasses- thick and gooey.

The little girl stood at the foot of the stairway. Her chocolate eyes were rimmed red and filled with a damp rheum. Her hair was mused from sleep and there was evidence of tears along her weathered cheeks, streaks darkening her fair skin tone.

"I can't sleep. I had a nightmare. Is my daddy a monster who wants to eat me?"

Hanna gasped, letting the photo album fall to the ground as she stood. As it fell, it remained open to that last photo she had been looking at.

"No Lexa," she'd semi-admonished, careful to keep her voice from bridging into hysteria. "He's the greatest, most gentlest, man ali-I- he's amazing baby."

Alexa nodded mutely, allowing her mother to carry her back upstairs and into bed. When she was enveloped in the covers with her many stuffed animals flanking her sides, Alexa tugged lightly on Hanna's blonde tresses, capturing her attention.

"How come daddy doesn't live with us? A normal family has a mommy, daddy and a baby. We're not a normal family. I want to be normal Mommy, please."

Hanna sighed, growing exhausted from the strenuous effort of keeping face. She wanted so badly to break down in tears, curl up in a ball, and never get back up as long as she lived. Her daughter was the only thing that kept her going, her grounding force.

"Alexandra Phoebe Marin. We are a normal family. I promise you. I love you so, so, much. My love is enough for both me and your daddy," she sighed again, voice cracking, "if it will make you happy sweetheart, I will take you to meet him. I will."

Alexa reached her arms up, hugging her mother close. "Thank you Mommy. I hope he loves me as much as you do."

Hanna kissed her daughter's cheek, wiping tenderly at the few tears that hadn't dried. "I know he will baby girl."

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_**Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter :) Any predictions as to what has happened to Caleb? Yes, he is Alexa's father. :) **_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: Here's Chapter 2! I hope that because I took forever to update that nobody has given up on this story, it has just begun! I just wrote this today, but I'm pretty sick, so it's not my best and it's super short/ Eek. Double sorry. Things will become clear in the next chapter through flashbacks pertaining to what happened to Caleb in more detail. A few of you got "what happened to him?" right so, applause. :) Anyway, onto the next chapter, and please continue to review, and those who have, thank you! Reviews are most definitely a writer's motivation! :)  
**_

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The sleek, stark white of the room was pristine; though the linoleum of the floors wasn't slippy - so one couldn't spontaneously launch into the Risky Business dance - but rather sticky, like congealed syrup stuck atop a granite counter.

Her daughter's hand rested in her's, their mute chatter matching the ambient of the room: where traces of anxiousness and unease were practically tasted, unpalatable to the tongue.

A curtain was pulled abruptly to the side, and now, without its opacity, he who lay there on the bed was stripped of that anonymity, and something about that, at least to the little girl who pulled forcefully on Hanna's hand, was intriguing.

"Is that...Is that daddy?" Alexa murmured, becoming caught up in her emotions as they blanketed her facial features: a shadow, smooth like silk, darkening her coca eyes.

Hanna nodded numbly, already regretting her decision. She wasn't mentally prepared to face this reality just yet. Though life is short, this was learnt the hard way, and Alexa needed to have a concrete representation of a father, even if, at this moment, he was only a sleeping semblance of the real thing.

"Can I...can I hug him? Or just say hi?"

Hanna placed a gentle kiss onto her daughter's head and looked covertly to the tending nurse for confirmation, receiving a careful smile in return. "You can, Lex. Do you want me to go in front?"

"No," Alexa stated, pressing a hand to her mother's, pushing it slightly. "I wanna tell daddy what I'm making you for your birthday."

Hanna was hesitant but followed behind a few steps, and looked on with bated breaths as her daughter interacted with her comatose father.

From her vintage point not so far from where Alexa and Caleb reside, Hanna tipped her head to the side, struggling to pick up the foggy whisperings that delicately danced along her eardrums.

"Hi daddy. Mommy calls me her baby girl, so that means that I am your baby girl too. My name is Alexandra, and my second name is Phoebe. Everyone calls me Alexa."

Hanna smiled adoringly, leaning against a chair that had been placed inside the curtained space.

"I asked mommy why she named me that, and do you want to know what she said? She said that Alexandra was your favorite girl's name and she picked Phoebe because that's the name of her favorite person from that TV show. Isn't that cool daddy? I love my name because you helped choose it and mommy too."

Hanna felt a tear, like light precipitation on a warm, spring day, gently kiss her face.

Alexa leaned in a bit closer to her father's ear, her voice, contradictorily orotund as she said: "I'm making mommy a special cupcake in my Easy Bake oven for her birthday. You can't tell her daddy. Okay?"

Hanna giggled, somewhat quietly, for she knew that particular sentence was not meant for her ears.

"Okay daddy?"

"Okay?"

"Do you promise?"

"Pinky swear?"

Hanna sighed, and enrobed within its heaviness was a strangled sob. "Lex, he can't...daddy can't...hear you right now..."

"Why mommy?" Alexa asked, a dawning conclusiveness making her eyes appear almost iritic. "Is he sleeping?"

Laying a small, pruny hand atop the child's shoulder, the aging duty nurse nodded with a sympathetic murmur. "That he is, sweet pea."

Hanna walked over to them, picked up her daughter, and briskly, though politely, thanked the somber woman: with her hair flat against her cheeks, her pointed features were ashen, regretful even.

"You're most certainly welcome."

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Alexa was laying on the other side of her mother's bed, curling and uncurling her fingers. It was past midnight, the green numbers silently iterating such, and the abnormal redness that plagued her sunken cheeks was an indicative that sleep was unforthcoming. The child groaned, her mewling sounding much like a newborn's starved cry.

"I'm here Lex, it's okay sweetheart, Mommy's here."

Hanna was quick to return, having heard her daughter's mercuriality. She leaned over the bed, placing the plastic glass of water on the nightstand.

Feeling her head, Hanna reasoned, without retaking her temperature, that Alexa's fever had noticeably increased, and this worried her. It was at 102 the last time, and now she could fairly assume at least a couple degrees higher. Emily had advised, as calmly as ever when Hanna phoned in a frenzied panic, to go to the ER if it reached above 106.

At Alexa's screechy command, Hanna passed her daughter the water glass, along with two chewable children's tylonel. The little girl took them gratefully, gulping down the water a second later to rid her mouth of the grit from the medicine tablets.

"Thank you Mommy," Alexa whispered feebly, turning onto her stomach. She shivered somewhat violently and rubbed her arms. "I'm reaalllyyy cold."

Hanna clucked sympathetically, hating that she couldn't do much else other than cover her with another blanket. "Is that any better, Lex?" she questioned sadly, laying an open palm against the little girl's clammy forehead.

With a shake of her head, Alexa sulked, pouty lip quivering some. "I'm too hot now," she stated, a tear falling down her ruddy cheek, paving a zig-zag path along her weathered skin.

"Mommy, you're supposed to make me feel better, why aren't you making me feel better!?" she wailed, tightly shutting her eyes and shying away from the thermometer Hanna held.

"No thomemeter. I don't like it when you do that. It hurts my ears."

Hanna sighed, carefully sticking it in her right ear despite the preceding protests. "I've gotta baby girl, I need to see if I have to take you to the doctor or not."

Alexa flinched, as if triggered by an invisible force, moving away from her mother as soon as her current temperature was cited.

"No. Doctors are scary. I don't wanna go!"

Hanna gave another tired sigh, her exhalation seeming oddly quiet intermixed with the whines that tumbled from her daughter's lips, teeming with a childly stigmatic paranoia.

Her temperature read 105, and Hanna was determined to be safe, rather than sorry. "Lexi," Hanna broached the subject with much caution, "We're gonna go see Auntie Emily now, okay?"

Alexa was confused, "At home? It's so late?"

"No Lexi, at work."

"Oh." There was no fighting, no fuss, as Hanna took her daughter and grabbed her purse, pulling on her jacket.

* * *

"You can come in now Han...she's of stable temperature now." Emily straightened her green scrubs, tightening the ponytail that held tightly to her raven hair.

"Thanks so much Em. I knew you'd take great care of her."

As Hanna stood up from the plastic chair she'd been mostly confined to apart from her coffee run twenty or so minutes ago, Emily reached to grab a hand. "Hanna."

"Emily." Hanna responded, with the same terse tone her friend had used. "What's wrong?"

Emily took a breath, leading the blonde down a long hallway that led to the ICU and into a private room. She gestured to the sleeping child and sighed. "Lex sleep talks."

"I know...she does that a lot. It's normal Em, you make it sound detrimental to her health."

Emily brushed a stray baby hair from Hanna's head.

"Hans...she asked about...talked about...Caleb...like she knew him. Like she really TALKED to him...and he RESPONDED. Alexa may be sorting through oppressed memories of the subconscious. They're like...how can I put this in terms you may understand...it's like...hungover recollections of something that happened the night before."

Hanna said nothing, hadn't even reacted to the not-so-subtle jab thrown her way. She remained quiet, her mind focussed on that one thing - a fleeting blip that merely grazed her lashes.

Caleb was there, in her bedroom, three nights after "IT" happened. Hanna paced the room, repeating: "I can't tell you."

She barely felt Emily's presence, her tanned skin lightly caressing her shoulder.

"She remembers Han. Those times you three had before the accident...they're there...in her head...buried beneath the Santa Claus sightings and twinkles of fairy dust."

Hanna sighed, logic not quite making sense. "Okay. But I just don't know if that's a good thing...or a bad one."

She looked to her daughter again: dark hair, dark eyes - she was so much like her father.

"Good. Definitely good." Emily whispered, giving a small smile.

"No Em...it's not. What if...it was horrible of me to take her there today...triggering all of those memories...what if he never wakes up? How do I explain to my little girl that daddy isn't ever going to know what she got me for my birthday?"

Emily was momentarily confused but there was no cunctation. "Oh Han...he's strong...so so strong...he'll come out of this."

Hanna surrendered to her friend's hug, melting into the embrace as a tear fell. "He better. He can't leave us alone. I won't ever forgive him."

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_**Author's Note: So? Was it alright? What would you guys like to see happen or what do you predict? Oh! Before I forget: I think I might do a collective story with one-shots surrounding particular couples; i.e Haleb, Spoby, Ezria, and I just LOVE Vandergomery. I know, she's dead (can't get over that! ugh sigh.) and it can never happen now but they were just so cute! (I'm a little late on this bandwagon but just that episode with Aria and Mike talking a few weeks back - "What was the real Mona like?" - and Mike's crying had me dying.) I would really love to explore their dynamic, there is't many fics out there other than a select few. Anyway...until next update! **_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Note: Hi guys, sorry I haven't updated in so long. It's been so busy recently and I actually am just getting over having suffered from a concussion - so I haven't been able to write much, if at all. Sorry this is so short, just a quick bit I whipped together but at least it's an update! Next chapter, you'll find out what kind of accident Caleb was involved in. Hopefully everything will then become clearer - look at me, like the PLL writers - everything's such a mystery. pooh! Anyway, hope you all enjoy! Review please! :) That is, if you're all still reading...oops...**_

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The pale, rippled, wrinkles of his hand were oddly feminine, a skin hanging limply there, along his bones, like a wilted flower lacking sunlight. She intertwined their fingers, squeezing twice - a sign that, as it was in prison, everything will be okay.

When he murmured her name, "Miranda," she hadn't thought anything of it because with a weak reciprocative squeeze of her hand, he finally saw her - for the first time in years: eyes bloodshot and nose runny. "Caleb?"

He looked lost, a vacant stare taking place in his dark orbs: wide and fearful, almost saddened, as though his very life has been a lie.

His gaze remained locked on not Hanna, but the small girl to her left - she who sat perched on the grey, plastic chair like a bird scared to fly: fingers curled nervously along the bottom of her seat, all white-knuckled and chipped nail polish.

"Da-ddy?" came her response to his awakening, the one word stretching into two as she reacted to its foreignness.

Caleb nodded, the mundane action seeming to have exhausted him as he lay there in the bed. "Hi Caroline."

"Daddy I - "

"Caleb, babe, what are you talking about? Who's Caroline? This is Alexandra...your daughter...don't you remember?"

Hanna felt his fingers making circles along her palm, careful and sweet, like he feared her hand was going to break if he pressed too hard, yet like her very body was to disappear if he let go.

"Caleb...you're scaring me - us - please...say you remember."

The whir of doctors, and nurses too, were forever rotating through to check on his vitals, on the many tubes that kept him alive. The timing of his breaths were becoming a regularity with little aid from the oxygen circulating through his nose. The beats of his heart were steady, matching pace with his next words, those of which halted her own palpitations.

"Of course I do Miranda."

The look he was giving her now was one so genuine; it held a certainty the same as a young child - vast and wholly untainted, unaffected by the many views of the world. She kept still, resisting the urge to rip her hand from his in rash decision. She told her daughter to leave the room, Alexa responding to her calm instruction without the further questions that were typical of she.

"Wait with Auntie Emily Lexi, don't wander off, okay?"

There was no reply, though she was sure she'd been heard. Turning again to her husband (it was a shot-gun wedding a day after her eighteenth birthday, something Caleb claimed was not obligatory on his part) Hanna took a deep breath, one that was brutally interrupted by hiccupy tears.

"You- yo-u don't re-re-rem-ember?"

He shook his head another time, letting her hand fall. It became enveloped in the fabric of her jacket, no longer in the warmth of porcelain skin, and she yearned for such tactility.

"I actually don't...I mean, I know that's -" he gestured to outside the door, through which muffled voices could be heard, "Caroline...but...who are you? Where's my wife?"

"I AM you're wife! I'm Hanna! Hanna Rivers! As of March 7th 2012!" I've been your wife, your Princess, your Babydoll, for 6 years now!"

Hanna was yelling and found, annoyingly, that she couldn't stop, bridging over - with a squeal heightening the decibel of her voice - into hysteria.

In this moment, Caleb was unreadable to the untrained eye, expressionless, but in reaction to Hanna's outburst, there was a chorus of beeps that came from the medical equipment - alerting those on-call immediately.

"Ms. Marin, I'm sorry but can you please step out, you're upsetting Caleb, along with other patients who are able to hear you. I recognize that this is a hard time - "

"No shit - "

"BUT - despite that, I need for you to cooperate."

"Fine," Hanna huffed, looking to Caleb one last time - with a team of attractive-looking nurses tending to him - "just tell me this: who the fuck is Caroline!?"

Caleb blinked, then chuckled as though she was just plain stupid. The sharp sound irked her. "My daughter."

Hanna groaned, slamming her palms on her knees in evident frustration. "WHO's!? Not mine, I know that much."

At this time, the nurse that had been talking to her previously - a youthful woman with auburn hair pulled back into a thin ponytail - pulled on her hand. "Hanna, you have to leave. Now."

Hanna yanked her wrist from the the woman's - whom she now knew to be Delilah, a friend of Emily's - grip.

"Who. Is. Caroline."

"Mine and my wife's." Caleb answered ever so calmly, contradictory to her present emotion.

"NO SHE's - "

"Mine and Miranda's."

With that last explanatory statement, all fell silent, even the hustle of the medical staff. Delilah placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, that of which she promptly shook off. "Leave Hanna. Please just go."

The scrape of the chair was louder than any other noise; it left a new, white scratch along the floor: synonymous in nature to the new, deep cut through her heart.

"Have a happy life with your phantom family. Excuse me now while I attempt to explain to our daughter that Daddy doesn't love her, that he doesn't love me."


	4. Chapter 4

Hanna watched as the pink ice cream dripped slowly down the cone, falling to the white of the little girl's sundress, not that she was bothered any. Grabbing onto the rope, the child began climbing along the wooden ladder, calling out with glee. "Mommy, look! Look how I can climb!"

Hanna looked up from her novel to see that it wasn't her daughter vying against the engrossing words for her attention, but another little girl, smiling now at her own mother, who looked nervous.

Sighing, Hanna shoved the book in her purse upon standing, finding that the park her and Caleb first really got acquainted failed to have the same appeal it had back then. It was the circumstance, she reasoned, beginning her walk towards home. The shittiest circumstance anyone could ever imagine.

He stood there, across from her, assuring her that it would be fine, that he would be fine.

She stood there, across from him, in a bathrobe and bare-foot, pleading with him: "don't go."

Caleb shook his head, soft tuffs of hair almost billowing in the warmth of the intense breeze. "You trust me right?"

Hanna crossed her arms, tightening the housecoat she wore around her distended

eight-months-pregnant belly. "It's not you I don't trust, it's that thing."

The 'thing' she was referring to, and disdainfully so, was the motorcycle that he had currently propped on its kickstand. He'd just come home with it this morning, a pitiful excuse for a smile etched upon his face and a groveling greeting coming from his mouth.

"I'm sorry, Han. Toby said I should buy one...he wanted to ride together...I know you hate these things - "

"That's right, I do - "

"But babe, you have to understand, I need a manly hobby because with two girls in the house very soon, I'm going to become soft."

"Fine, you do you Mr. Ferrel, go get hard with your buddy Kevin. I won't stop you." Hanna resigned, kissing his cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too Han, thank you," Caleb murmured against her neck, becoming pulled into an intimate embrace not against his will.

"And you too, Alexandra," he added, kissing her stomach as a particularly forceful kick caused wavelengths to appear along her skin. "Daddy promises to come back to you, my little jitterbug."

"I promise Princess," he said, moving his thumb tenderly across Hanna's cheek.

Caleb got on the bike then, smoothly enough, and started it up. He waved goodbye to his wife and was off to meet Toby in the same second.

Ten minutes later, Hanna was in tears, uncontrollable, earnest, tears, while conversing with the police about the last time she'd seen her husband.

He'd crashed into the median only minutes after leaving her and suffered from major head trauma, resulting in a medically induced coma. That's where he's been for five years, not with his daughter and wife, not where he'd promised to be.

Hanna violently rubbed her face, attempting to rid her eyes of the tears that just kept coming. Remembering hurt too much; sentimentality has been stripped from her very being since that day, only reserved for the one person that has yet to break their promise. Her daughter. Their daughter.

Alexa had been at Emily's all day, baking cookies, watching movies, having dance battles...being distracted from all the bad in the world, as if chocolate and Frozen was going to mend that gaping hole Caleb left in her heart.

"Daddy doesn't love me?" she'd questioned quietly over dinner the other night, with Hanna not what to say. It was the day of Caleb's awakening, the day her mother took her by the arm and stomped out of the hospital, stone-faced and silent out of hope and desperation; that maybe he was just playing a joke or something.

"I'm sure he does, jitterbug. It will just take some time." That was the belief Hanna now held on to; she kept a tight grip on this one thing, the same way she used to snuggle into his chest during a thunderstorm, this mantra like his heartbeat: something soothing and once reliable.

After having returned home, Hanna tore the keys off of the king ring, barely stopping to say hi to Poppy the pug - Sullivan said it would be good for Alexa to have another dependable companion - before leaving again.

"Hey Em, how is she?" Hanna asked, gripping the steering wheel unnecessarily tight as she turned onto the main road and off the residential street.

"Oh Hanna, quit worrying. Aside from a cookie dough tummy ache we've been having a great time. Right Lexi-girl?"

The voice coming through the speakers was tinny but recognizable just the same, its pitch sounding almost delicate. These last few days, if one wrong thing was said it would send her over the edge.

"We're having the bestest time ever Mommy! I beat Auntie Emmy in Dance Dance Rev-o-lu-sh-on!"

Hanna smiled, "Good job baby girl! That sounds fun! Can you put Auntie Emmy on the phone please?"

There was the unmissable sound of mumbling and some giggles before Emily spoke. "Hey Han. I can keep her here for dinner if you'd like and before you say anything, it's my pleasure, okay?"

"Thanks Em. I gotta go but I'll call you later m'kay?"

Hanna hung up without waiting for an appropriate reply, or any signal

that Emily had by chance not heard. She put the car in park, having arrived at her destination, and opened her door. It's time.

Caleb just stared at her, his eyes slit. "No, that's impossible."

"Oh, and having a ghost for a wife, isn't?" Hanna snapped back.

When she'd come in, set his food to the side, apparently not in the mood to eat. "Did Delilah let you in here?" he'd asked her, the same expression he wore now coming alive on his face.

"No," she'd answered, "I snuck in here. Old habits die hard, babe."

She proceeded to tell him the story of Alexa's sleep talking: how it began right after she turned two, how, when Hanna listened, she could here distinct mumbles of 'daddy' and 'I miss you.' She'd just finished with the bit about that night in the Emergency room, telling him what Emily had told her, and 'impossible' was his response.

"Listen Hanna, I don't think I could dream, while in a coma, much less dream about a child whom I've never met."

"You have met her though, on the day you woke up, remember? It's been a week Caleb, snap out of it. Stop regressing and join us here in the future, we need you." Hanna's voice broke and she scolded herself: 'he doesn't need that right now.'

"Oh Han..." His expression softened, and he reached out and grabbed her hand. "I'm just not ready to face the reality. It's too much."

"But Caleb...please...I-I-I-we- need you. You're stronger than some accident. Please just let yourself remember it so you can remember us. Your family."

The doctor had concluded that Caleb slipped into regression upon waking due to the severity of the accident being too much for his brain to handle. He's currently living in the past, in a time where it was safer, where he feels safest.

Miranda, in her opinion at least, was the worst thing that happened to him. Though he, evidently, didn't see it that way.

"Hanna. Let me promise you this. I will try. I'll try for you, and Alexa both. I can feel at one time that you were very, very, special to me."

Hanna gave him a soft smile. "That's all I can ask of you."

With that, she left, leaving the photo albums on the table as she did so.


	5. Chapter 5

I read the reviews in regards to my writing habits and you guys are right. I only stopped because I thought nobody cared...I got a select few reviews - thank you to those - and I just thought: why waste time if people don't review? I want to interact with my readers, know how they react to each bomb dropped or chapter in general. Without that aspect, fanfiction becomes dull. I'll write for you, if you show me you want it to be written: interact with me, invest into my story if you like it, the time I put into writing it. :) Wow, that sounded really bitchy sorry... :P


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: Here you all go! The last chapter of Faraway Dreaming! I hope it's okay, I know it's short but it's also fluffy! :) New story soon, I have an idea in the works :) And yes, it's Haleb once again :) With the tome jump happening so soon, it's crazy because fanfic writers won't have their scenarios - our scenarios- and be able to think of them as true in the show because the writers have something planned for their futures, something us writers love to conjure up ourselves. I wonder id we'll be happy with it. Hopefully! :) One mote week until #FaceToFace! :) (I literally typed this up in like 10 mins, no proofreading or anything, I apologize for the typos - it's late! :P ) R and R! :) (I'm nervous this wasn't what you'll all have expected or it's slap-dash and I am sorry :( Hope you enjoy though! *crosses fingers and waits patiently for reviews* :P **_

* * *

Caleb read through the albums carefully, closely, as though not to miss any tiny detail, one he may have missed otherwise. He grinned down at a picture of his little girl, a baby she was, in the photo, with ruddy cheeks and a droopy smile; she sat in her father's lap as he smiled adoringly, his wife's, her mother's head resting comfortably on his shoulder as blonde hair tumbled in waves along the black of his shirt.

"I remember, Hanna Marin. I remember you baby doll. It's all coming back," he said the moment she walked in, Alexa cautious behind her, a few steps away. After his outburst before, Caleb knew why she'd chosen to keep her distance; she was frightened, possibly traumatized.

Hanna shot herself careening into his arms, scaring him some, though he hadn't minded, not at all. The last few days have been this whirlwind of recognition for him, rumination in it's clearest, lucid, form. It was the greatest feeling.

"Oh Caleb, I've missed you so, so, so, so, so, so -" His laughter cut her off as a kiss prevented her next few words. "I knew you'd come back."

Alexa inched out from behind her mother, such a childlike curiosity prompting her actions and speech alike as there could be heard, a quiet, mousy, murmur: "Daddy?"

The very word - daddy - melted his heart, the warmth consuming it wholly, heating it to a temperature so scalding that it may burst out of his chest. He smiled, taking in a deep breath along with her every feature - dark hair, small nose, chocolate eyes, and a personality that could light up an entire sky with more gold than the stars. This was his daughter. Hanna's daughter. Their daughter, their baby, their little girl.

"Oh my jitterbug, my Alexandra, my baby girl, you're not a baby anymore." The tears began without his knowledge, not until a second or so later was he aware of them as they cascaded fearlessly down his cheeks - putting his masculinity into a scorching spotlight, interrogating its ingenuity.

Alexa ran to her father, becoming curled up into the cocoon of his arms, instantly and without any hesitation, not like there may have been before. "I love you so much Daddy, and I'm not a little girl anymore, I'm all grown up. I'm five now!"

Hanna was the one to take her daughter's place as she became occupied with her stuffed bear. "She has so much personality now, babe. She's just like you and for that I am so glad. She's a fighter. Just like you. I love you so much and I promise you, I never have, and never will love anybody else as long as I live."

Caleb took her by the arms and pushed back, looking straight into her eyes. "Me either. I was just so scared, that after the accident...it had been so long; you and Alexa may have moved on, I'd though that, since you had been with Travis before we'd reconciled the last time...I had tried to make terms with the fact that our baby needed a father figure and that however you chose, may that be Travis, it would always be the best thing for her. I just...I didn't know...Miranda was the other girl I'd felt comfortable enough around besides you...I though that maybe if I could conjure her up again...everything would be okay. It wouldn't hurt so much to see you with someone else. I guess I took it too far in the presuming of things..."

"Caleb," Hanna sighed, biting her lip as a tear trickled out of her eye, "_you_ are the best for her. Her and I. Nobody else could ever compare. Ever. You here me Mr. Rivers?"

He watched her worry her bottom lip between her teeth, and he kissed her head. "I do, Mrs. Rivers."

Hanna smiled and he did too and as Alexa barrelled straight for them, snuggling in beside her mother, he buried his face into their hair, inhaling the scent of home. _His_ home. For always.

* * *

"Caleb, can you get the door? I've got to get Hudson...he's awake again."

As Hanna went into the nursery to tend to their newborn son, he went to answer the awaiting guest and invited them in. "Merry Christmas Em."

Emily smiled, accepting Caleb's hug and breaking away soon after as she noticed Hanna approaching the entrance way, a gurgling baby boy in her arms and a smaller child trailing behind. "Lexi girl!"

The little girl ran to hug her aunt, going straight for the knees. "Auntie Emmy! Merry Christmas! Did you bring presents for me!?"

"Alexandra," Caleb chided softly, pulling he rack up to her feet, though not aggressively. "That was very rude."

Alexa blushed a light shade of red, lips downturning as if contemplating her next words. "And Hudson too. I guess I forgot him. Oh well."

"Alexandra Phoebe Rivers! I know you love your brother, is that a way to talk about somebody you love?" Hanna sighed, running a hand through her daughter's curls as she grumbled a feeble response, hands hiding her eyes.

"She's having a hard time adjusting to the baby being around," Hanna explained, watching as Alexa played with her dolls, distracted - for now. "She only had a few months with Caleb to herself before Hudson was born...I guess that was poor planning on our part."

Emily smirked, "Oh Han, planning my ass. Hudson was a mistake. Plain and simple." She cupped the child's cheek in her palm as he offered up a tentative sound. "A very beautiful mistake. All those years ago, you must have been right then: tell me, his reunion sex that much hotter than normal?"

"Yes," Caleb interjected, his wife turning crimson and coughing awkwardly into her hand. It was odd, Hanna wasn't one to shy away from things such as this, she was no prude; though, it was evident that her tell-tale actions didn't attest to this. Emily giggled, taking the baby from her friend as he became quickly enamoured, as infants often do, with a strand of raven-colored hair.

"The others should be here soon. Traffic I'm guessing."

"That's okay, dinner won't be for another hour anyway, there was a second turkey because the wife burnt the first one."

"I did not!" Hanna exclaimed, becoming highly defensive with such chagrin. "It was a little charred, fine, but we still could have eaten it."

Emily laughed to ease the building dispute between the couple. "I'm sure it was Han. Caleb, you don't be so hard on your wife. She just had another baby for you, this is what you do to repay her? Mock her cooking skills?"

"I did not 'mock' them, I merely pointed out that they sucked epically. There is a difference you know."

Hanna grumbled as Caleb leaned over and kissed her temple. "You wanted this baby too."

Hanna intertwined their fingers, sighing blissfully. "I know. This is what I've always dreamed of. You, me, our children. Together."

"And now it's a reality. No more faraway dreaming Hanna Rivers."


End file.
